A Mercy School

Carmel College was founded in 1957 by the Sisters of Mercy to provide a Catholic education for girls on Auckland’s North Shore. The school is set on the shores of Lake Pupuke in Milford. Carmel College offers every opportunity for girls to obtain a broad, academically challenging education. This holistic education is founded on the gospel values of the Catholic faith, interwoven with cultural and sporting opportunities.

“Mercy and faithfulness have met. Justice and peace have embraced” Psalm 85

Scripture defines and depicts Mercy as ‘faithful love’, God’s primary attribute. To be a person of Mercy is to respond affirmatively to all that is human and to seek the basic potential for good, beauty, truth and love in everyone.

Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, made Mercy visible and present in the unjust socio-economic climate of nineteenth-century Ireland. She challenged the structures of oppression and the injustice of that society and, in the ensuing one hundred and ninety years, has inspired many thousands of women and men to follow her example.

At Carmel College, practising Mercy is a call to action, and the choice to be merciful will express itself in peace and justice. Mercy goes hand in hand with self-dignity, respect for the dignity of others and a willingness to promote just social structures which celebrate the dignity of all.  Students are encouraged to be involved in service activities both within school and in the community.

Carmel has an educational commitment to the intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual growth of our students. Through this commitment, we have the mission and the means to inform the conscience of our community where economic, religious, sexual and ethnic biases exist.

Our aim is for a young woman to leave Carmel College a fully-developed person of courage, integrity, initiative and caring awareness.